Bill Morneau

[Interprovincial Trade, June 3rd, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to say that we had a meeting of ministers of trade from the provinces last week. It was an important meeting, at which we talked about how important it is to expand internal trade in our country. We see a huge opportunity, and progress was made. It builds on the effort of the federal government, because we took away all federal restrictions around, for example, the transfer of alcohol across our country.

We are working together with the provinces to make sure this can actually come true in our country to help our economy over the long term.

[Northern Development, June 3rd, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Yukon for his tireless advocacy on behalf of people in the Yukon and people broadly across the north. He does a fantastic job.

What can be seen in budget 2019 is that we put $700 million in it over 10 years for the continued prosperity of Arctic and northern communities.

There are a couple of things for which the member for Yukon has personally advocated, such as extending the mineral exploration tax credit to five years and, importantly, providing funding for a science building at Yukon College so that we can have the first university north of 60. His advocacy was very important in these efforts.

[Finance, May 14th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, fortunately, when I was in the private sector I had the opportunity to make investments to grow a business. This was very successful, and what we have done here is similar. We decided that the Conservatives had a bad approach that led to too much unemployment and too little growth.

With our approach we are investing for Canadians and have reached another level of growth and the lowest unemployment rate in 40 years. This approach is working for our economy.

[Finance, May 14th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, this is a perfect opportunity for me to talk about what we have done over the past four years.

Things are going great for Canadians across the country, with over a million jobs created in four years and the lowest unemployment rate in about 40 years.

Four years ago, unemployment was too high, and growth was too low. We are better off now thanks to our policies.

[Finance, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to support an international effort to look at international development banks around the world. What are these banks intended to do? They are intended to help countries that are facing significant economic challenges address and meet those challenges for the future. That is something we will continue to do.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is an important development bank, one that is helping countries across Asia. We are proud to work together with like-minded countries, as the Prime Minister mentioned, such as Australia and Germany, in helping to make sure that—

[Finance, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, one of the things we know is that the environment is global. One of the things we know is that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has made one investment in China, and that is to help China get off coal so it can actually reduce emissions. What we also know is that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is going to make investments in less-developed countries, investments that are going to help our global economy. We happen to understand that the Canadian economy is part of the global economy, so we will continue to work with other nations to make sure that we enhance our global economy and do it while also enhancing our environment.

[Finance, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is, we are investing in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with other countries. It is very important to have a bank that helps the countries facing the greatest challenges. That is important.

At this time, there is only one investment in China through the bank, and that investment will help improve our environment. That is crucial. At the same time, we must continue working with other countries to improve the global economy. That is very important to Canada as well.

[Steel Industry, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to be very clear. Canadian steelworkers can count on this government. We will support steelworkers. We will support the steel industry.

We did receive the CITT report last week identifying that in two cases out of seven, safeguards were absolutely required. We have also said that we will continue to look at this issue, together with the industry, together with the workers, to make sure that we protect our industry in an appropriate fashion.

We have set an aggressive timeline to do so. We are looking at multiple measures that we think can be in support of the industry. We will firmly support that industry as we move through this process.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I would point out that the New Democratic Party has supported time allocation in the past when it has seen that a measure has been, in its estimation, important.

Things like ensuring that seniors can be more successful because they have the ability to earn more money and keep more money in their pockets, or ideas like ensuring that students have less interest to pay on their student debt, or ensuring that first-time homebuyers have the ability to get into a home more rapidly are the sorts of measures, along with things like the training benefit, that we believe are critically important. It is for that reason that we want to move it to committee and make sure that we can have questions on these measures to ensure that we get on with the work we are doing for Canadians.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1, April 30th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, it is a bit odd to hear the Conservatives say that it is important to continue the debate when they were the ones who tried to adjourn it. It is hard to understand, but that is their approach.

Our approach is clear. We want a budget that will improve life for Canadians. That is why we presented a budget this year that will not only improve the economy, but will also give Canadians the opportunity to get more training to adapt to the changing economy. It is very important.

We have already done many things that helped Canadians get ahead. Now, with budget 2019, we are trying to give our country a better future. That is very important. That is why we want to work with the committee to consider our measures and continue to have a healthy economy.